In an existing image forming apparatus, a heating roller in the apparatus needs to be preheated for a certain time before the image forming apparatus runs, and then the image forming apparatus may work normally.
Generally, when the image forming apparatus receives a signal of starting running, the preheating starts at the same time when the apparatus starts. Before the completion of the preheating, all other transmission components of the image forming apparatus are not in motion, and a user is prompted that the image forming apparatus is working, for example, by flashing an LED light.
However, since the preheating time is relatively long, usually longer than 10 seconds, the user probably may not notice the flashing of the LED light, or may not observe the flashing of the LED light in bright light, so that the user cannot determine whether the image forming apparatus is in normal operation. Moreover, the user may even think that a fault in the image forming apparatus has occurred while actually the apparatus runs normally, thus causing great inconvenience in use for the user.